Before I left Sarasota last week, I paid a visit to the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Because of the time of year, there were hardly any flowers in bloom throughout the grounds — 99% of the flowers I saw there were inside the Tropical Display House, which is the first stop in the gardens so my flower viewing was over in the first 10 minutes of my visit. (Luckily, there some good bromeliads, bamboo, cacti and banyan trees with enormous roots to keep me occupied.) I didn’t realize that was going to be the case — I was hoping that the seasonal flowers would be fooled because it was Florida and grow anyway. But alas, the Selby flowers are pretty darn smart. At least when they’re outside they are. The orchids grown inside and kept in the display house clearly had no idea what was going on because they looked just lovely.
